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I've long said that anyone making that argument for having your average car be able to go up to 150 or so needs to be put in a car, forced to drive at a minimum

I've long said that anyone making that argument for having your average car be able to go up to 150 or so needs to be put in a car, forced to drive at a minimum speed of 150, and forced to do 50 or so miles on your average American highway. If after that experience they are still alive and still wish to make that argument, then I will accept it. But with that said, I have heard an alternate argument for it that makes more sense to me. Most cars aren't running their engines at 100% -- they shouldn't be. But the top of the RPM and speed dials, are meant to represent that 100%. So the 155mph standard upper limit on many cars' speed gauges is more to account for the fact that if you push the powertrain of the car to 100%, you will probably find yourself at somewhere near those kinds of speeds anyways, and you want to still show the driver how fast they're going, even if they're doing something nuts.

zamadatix 2y ago
I think what the speedometer is capable of displaying, what the car is actually capable of reaching, and what the governor should be set to are 3 separate items. I wouldn't have any problem with the latter being set lower on general cars mostly because it'd be an extra "and you removed the limiter on a public road" charge when they are caught more than the hope it'd actually do anything preventative. It's not like people getting pulled over for doing 120 mph now are getting a $100 speeding ticket though and the same thing could be achieved through just making that punishment higher directly. Also anyone buying a car that can genuinely take itself to 150 (i.e. not that the speedometer can read 150 but that the whole car, tires included, are actually rated to not fall apart when the engine tries to do so) who hasn't already taken the thing to a track is either nuts or one of those people with a car collection garage of things they never actually drive. That includes any of you model S owners... it's a blast.
- genocidicbunny 2y ago
  > I think what the speedometer is capable of displaying, what the car is actually capable of reaching, and what the governor should be set to are 3 separate items. I agree, but I think there was at one point more coherency between those 3 items and it made more sense to just have the speedos go up to 155 or thereabouts, because that was basically the highest speed that any reasonably consumer-accessible car would reach (so not the ones tuned up to go really fast, but maybe something like a muscle car which could on a good day maybe get close to those numbers.) These days, you're right. No sane manufacturer is going to overprovision their cars to be able to do 2x the speed limit of their target market without an expectation that the car will be extremely niche if they do.
deleted 2y ago
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zamadatix 2y ago

I think what the speedometer is capable of displaying, what the car is actually capable of reaching, and what the governor should be set to are 3 separate items. I wouldn't have any problem with the latter being set lower on general cars mostly because it'd be an extra "and you removed the limiter on a public road" charge when they are caught more than the hope it'd actually do anything preventative. It's not like people getting pulled over for doing 120 mph now are getting a $100 speeding ticket though and the same thing could be achieved through just making that punishment higher directly. Also anyone buying a car that can genuinely take itself to 150 (i.e. not that the speedometer can read 150 but that the whole car, tires included, are actually rated to not fall apart when the engine tries to do so) who hasn't already taken the thing to a track is either nuts or one of those people with a car collection garage of things they never actually drive. That includes any of you model S owners... it's a blast.

genocidicbunny 2y ago
> I think what the speedometer is capable of displaying, what the car is actually capable of reaching, and what the governor should be set to are 3 separate items. I agree, but I think there was at one point more coherency between those 3 items and it made more sense to just have the speedos go up to 155 or thereabouts, because that was basically the highest speed that any reasonably consumer-accessible car would reach (so not the ones tuned up to go really fast, but maybe something like a muscle car which could on a good day maybe get close to those numbers.) These days, you're right. No sane manufacturer is going to overprovision their cars to be able to do 2x the speed limit of their target market without an expectation that the car will be extremely niche if they do.

deleted 2y ago

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